Continental Contacts puncture and wear experience review

The purpose of this post is to summarise my wear, puncture rates and ride experience with these with Continental Contacts as fitted to my Surly Long Haul Trucker.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker is used as both a commuter (city riding on a mix of road and dual use paths) and touring. It is ridden in all weather conditions on bitumen roads a mix of bitumen and concrete paths.

As Western Australia does not have a bottle deposit scheme there tends to be a fair bit of glass on roads and paths.

The tyres where removed at 4,272.4 km. A puncture rate of one every 712 kilometres was just too frustrating to warrant keeping the tyres on the bike.Â At the time of removal they where still showing lots of tread life and would have stayed on the bike if they where more puncture resistance.

Fitted to â€¦

Front or Rear

Cost per km *

Punctures per km

Other Comments

Surly Long Haul Trucker

Front

1,068.10

Four punctures

Wet riding conditions

Cause: glass x 4

Surly Long Haul Trucker

Rear

2,122 km

Two punctures

One in dry weather conditions and one in wet weather conditions

Cause: wire x 1, glass x 1

Summary

$0.0104

712.4 km

Five punctures in total with these tyres.

* As these where OEM tyres, the cost per kilometre is estimated using the Wiggle replacement cost as at September 19, 2009.

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About Aushiker

Andrew Priest is a bicycle rider and bushwalker and a passionate advocate of cycling and rider road safety. He is mainly a commuter, bicycle tourist and occasional Audax rider. You can find Andrew on Google+, on Facebook and on Twitter

I mentioned in a thread in another group that my dad always contended that the rear trailer tires of his 18-wheelers tended to flat because of debris more often than the other tires. He thought it was because a nail or other sharp would be thrown up by the drive wheels and land sharp side up when it got to the rear.

I could see that happening with small shards of glass or wire with my bike. Plus, my rear tire carries more weight than the front.

I mentioned in a thread in another group that my dad always contended that the rear trailer tires of his 18-wheelers tended to flat because of debris more often than the other tires. He thought it was because a nail or other sharp would be thrown up by the drive wheels and land sharp side up when it got to the rear.

I could see that happening with small shards of glass or wire with my bike. Plus, my rear tire carries more weight than the front.

I have these on my LHT, I also had them on my Kona Sutra, here is a post from a thread I commented on back in Feb 2008

“I got some travel contacts great tire when new i got nearly 3000k with 1 flat, but i had to swap out the front and rear after 2600km due to really excessive wear. so i figure with the swap ill get 6000k or so, which i guess is pretty good, they roll pretty fast and if im honest i like them.”

I have these on my LHT, I also had them on my Kona Sutra, here is a post from a thread I commented on back in Feb 2008

“I got some travel contacts great tire when new i got nearly 3000k with 1 flat, but i had to swap out the front and rear after 2600km due to really excessive wear. so i figure with the swap ill get 6000k or so, which i guess is pretty good, they roll pretty fast and if im honest i like them.”

I got two punctures in the Conti Contacts on my first 60km ride. Both were caused by stone chips which lodged in the treads and penetrated the tire. I was unimpressed and replaced them immediately with narrower 700 x 32C Schwalbe Marathon Supremes. These are lightweight and low rolling resistance, with minimal tread pattern to pick up stones.

Thanks Cameron for the catch. I assume that they where Travel Contacts as this is what is listed on the Surly website. Closer inspection following your comment confirms your view. The post is now updated.